


Fairy Tales

by Skippyin



Category: Epithet Erased (Cartoon)
Genre: Fairy AU, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Maybe more if i keep going, and more!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-02-22 14:57:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22117756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skippyin/pseuds/Skippyin
Summary: Molly's village is in the middle of a food crisis and her father just accidentally ate the last of the family rations, leaving Molly in charge of getting more food. She decides to venture out on a quest to find food but winds up getting caught up in a bit of a mess.---Fairy AU fic!
Comments: 77
Kudos: 216





	1. Food Box

“A food box?” Molly looked up from the list she was writing, pausing in her stressed thoughts in favor of focussing on what her classmate had said.

“Yeah! Just a few blocks down from the park. A big metal box with a window, and inside the window is a bunch of food! Just sitting around!” The girl raised her hands up in the air to emphasize her astonishment, “It could feed the whole village!”

The girl bit her lip in thought. So much food _could_ feed the village, but there was no way the mayor would let enough fairies leave in order to go get it all. It was too high a risk. The village was running low on food and she had heard adults discuss that there was no way the town would be prepared for winter unless a miracle happened. The old apple tree their village resided in didn’t have a very big harvest this year, most of it having been picked away by insects and birds. Her family’s cabinets were horribly bare, and her father and sister were just ignoring the situation like they usually did... Maybe, though, just maybe she could use this to solve their problem.

“Where did you say the food box was?”

The ominous monolith glowed brightly in the dark of night. The light emanating from inside allowing anyone to see the wrapped up snacks set in neat rows and make their selection. Molly stood on the concrete and craned her neck to take in the sight. So much food, just sitting there. Humans were strange creatures indeed.

The machine stood in front of a large building, a museum if she was reading the sign right. Then again, English was currently one of the subjects she was struggling with in school. But the location didn’t matter, all that mattered was that nobody was around, which meant this was her chance to get something to feed her family.

It probably wasn’t the healthiest of foods, but a single bag could feed them for a whole week. That is if her dad didn’t decide to “accidentally” eat it all himself. It’s happened a few times. It would be hard, but maybe if she planned this carefully she could transport two bags back to the park. She was already formulating a plan as she climbed into the clunky metal slot of the machine. The machine seemed to have been built with human-sized thieves in mind, so it was easy to slip past the barrier that was trying to go up as she pushed the slot open. There wasn’t enough room to fly, but there were plenty of footholds to be found which served as her way up to a bright yellow bag.

The loud crinkling of the cheap material drowned out the sound of a car pulling up in the nearby parking lot. She didn’t hear the footsteps or the sound of someone giving commands.

She did hear the explosion though, and the shaking knocked Molly from her perch causing her to plummet to the bottom of the machine. A quick spell helped her dumb down the damage of falling, only resulting in the smallest ache on her arms and legs. Molly shakily got to her feet, listening to the commotion outside.

“Go! Go! Go!” A voice shrieked followed by the loud whooping of several humans running into the building. Molly waited for several moments, her hands glowing green and ready to throw up a Silence Bubble should any return. But after what felt like a decent amount of time, she let the magic go and sighed.

 _“What was that all about?”_ She thought as she went to open the slot-

Only to find that there was no way to pull the slot open from her side. With the way it was constructed, she couldn’t get a good grip, with the addition that it was too cramped to get any good leverage.

She was stuck.

“Oh no.” Molly tried to get a better grip on the door only to have her fingers keep slipping on the smooth metal. “No no no!” She couldn’t be stuck! What if she was stuck in there forever?! What if she died?! What if-?!

No. No, she had to calm down and think about this logically. Human machines were strange, but not invincible. Clearly, there had to be some kind of opening somewhere, or else she’d be having a hard time breathing. Or maybe she could find a way to smash the window? Or she could-

“Where do you think you’re going, Ben?!” Was the distant call that caused Molly to freeze up.

“Well, I figured since I’m the one watching the entrance for the cops I could grab a quick snack! I didn’t have dinner!” The second voice was over by the door and getting steadily closer.

“Oh well if that’s the case, by all means, you can’t commit crimes on an empty stomach.”

“Thanks, boss!” Molly held her breath as a set of footsteps stopped just outside of the machine. Looking up she could see a human - presumably Ben - in a strange yellow uniform peering in at the selection. Wait! Maybe this could be her chance to escape? When he opened the door, she could fly out and come back later. Preferably when there weren’t intimidating people blowing up doors.

Molly anxiously watched as the man pulled out a piece of green paper and fit it into a slot. When the machine ate it, he pushed a couple of buttons and a bright red bag with orange triangles started to tip forward. Molly got ready to make a run for it.

The bag got stuck.

“Oh, man! Come on you stupid garbage machine! Give me my chips!” The machine shook and Molly looked longingly at the bag. Well… Her mom had always taught her that a little bit of kindness usually went a long way. It would be risky, but maybe she could pull this off.

Molly started climbing once again, it was a little bit harder because of Ben hitting the side of the machine repeatedly, but that stopped once Molly was halfway to the bag of chips. Ben had fallen completely silent and she could feel his eyes on her back. She knew she’d lose her nerve if she met his gaze, so she just kept climbing.

_Keep going. Keep going!_

With a mighty yank, Molly pulled the bag free and it fell to the bottom of the machine.

“Oh hey, thanks!” Molly turned around to see Ben bending down to open the slot only to freeze, do a double-take, then press his face up against the glass. She could see his wide eyes hiding behind the lenses of his helmet. “Wait, _WHAT?!_ ”

“Uh, hi?” Molly gave him an uneasy but polite smile, offering him a wave. “Would you mind opening the slot, please? I am stuck in here... Please.” She hoped that was the right choice of words. She knew humans liked polite language so sprinkling in please a lot should work, right?

Ben stared for a long few moments before running off with a shriek of: “BOSS!”

“No, no, no, wait, please!” Molly watched him run away. Oh no, he was going to go get the others, wasn’t he? This was a bad idea.

She wracked her brain on what to do next. Darn it, why couldn’t she have been born with stronger magic?! Molly bit her lip as her gaze wandered down to the bag of abandoned chips. The gears started turning and a plan started to form. There was still hope!

A few minutes later Molly could hear the sounds of Ben returning with his so-called boss in tow.

“- not lying! I swear! It said it was stuck so there’s no way it got out while I was gone! Just come and see!”

“Fine! Okay! But I swear if this is a prank-!”

“It’s not a prank! Honest!”

“Yeah, it’s probably a hallucination.”

“Shut up, Carcrash!”

Molly shifted deeper into the bag, planning to take a bath to wash off all the cheese dust that was rubbing off on her. The footsteps came closer and there was a moment of silence as they peered into the machine.

“I don’t see any tiny glowing people.”

“I swear it was here!”

“Well, it’s obviously _not_ here anymore Ben! Listen, I know you weren’t _thrilled_ about being put on guard duty. But it’s important!”

“But-!”

“Just go back to your snack, keep quiet, and look out for actual real cops!”

There was a faint sound of grumbling and then, suddenly, the sound Molly had been waiting for. The door opened. She felt a hand close around the bag and pull it out.

“Hey, what a jip, it’s already opened-!”

Molly shifted her weight, fell out of the bag, and flew. She ignored the sound of a distressed scream. She blew past two other uniformed men who had been walking away, flying past their faces.

“What the-?!”

Molly’s goal was the tree at the end of the parking lot. If she could make it there, she could camouflage with the leaves and lose any pursuers. She just had to keep going!

Something hot and wet splashed against her back, soaking her wings instantly. She winced at the sting of burning liquid and quickly dumbed down the pain from both the minor burns and her crash onto the pavement. Her damp wings were heavy on her back and she struggled to get onto her hands and knees.

“See! I told you I wasn’t lying!” 

“What is that? An epithet summon?”

A shadow fell over Molly and she looked up. Green eyes met pink ones. Words died in her throat as a gloved hand came at her. She braced herself to be squeezed or crushed, but the hand closed around her and lifted her up with a surprising amount of gentleness.

“I don’t think this was made by an epithet,” The man holding her said, lifting her up to eye level. “Besides, a summoned creature would have been destroyed in one hit by my lava ball! No summoned creature has any hope of surviving the sheer power of Giovanni Potage!”

Molly squirmed, starting to feel a little claustrophobic in his grip. Surprisingly, the human opened his fingers to give her more room. She contemplated dropping and making a run for it, but there was no way her running speed could beat Giovanni’s stride.

She cringed when there was a flash and turned her head only to be met with another flash of light. She covered her eyes with a whimper. Where they trying to blind her?!

“Hey hey hey! Easy on the flash photography, Carcrash!” Giovanni’s other hand came to block her as a third flash went off.

“Oh, sorry boss. It’s not every day you see something like this.”

“Yeah yeah, I know… Would you mind sending me a copy of those?”

“Sure!”

“Can I touch it?” Ben appeared over Giovanni’s shoulder.

“No!” Giovanni and Molly exclaimed at the same time. Whatever Giovanni was about to follow up with died in his throat when he heard the smaller voice join his own. His eyes snapped back to her, looking slightly surprised. “Oh, you can speak English.”

He took a moment to process, then stood up straight, cleared his throat, and struck a pose.

“Tremble in fear little girl! For we are the **_Banzai Blasters!_ ** Here to rob this museum blind! And no magical vending machine guardians are going to get in our way!”

“...”

“... This is the part where you tremble in fear of our villainy.”

“Oh. Uh.” Molly wiggled like she’d seen bumblebees do.

“That’s dancing not trembling!”

“Oh sorry.” Molly was roughly understanding a good 80% of what he was saying. She was trying to mentally translate as fast as she could, but this guy talked really loud and really fast. Not a very good combination.

“Well now, this is just weird!” Giovanni huffed.

“As if it wasn’t weird _already_.” Ben turned and started walking back over to the vending machine, already pulling out another dollar to replace the snack he lost.

“Maybe we should hurry back inside, boss,” Carcrash motioned back to the entrance, “If we take too long the cops’ll be on us for sure!”

“You’re right,” Giovanni’s fingers closed around Molly a fraction, “Let’s get back inside before Flamethrower sets fire to the place somehow. You know how he always finds a way to do that.”

They were about halfway to the door before Giovanni paused, looking down at Molly with an unsure gaze. Molly gave him a nervous smile in return, hoping he wasn’t about to hurt her. Giovanni’s gaze traveled down to the man purse at his hip and he very carefully opened it and lowered Molly down into it. She was settled on an unfinished knitting project and next thing she knew she was being handed an orange fish-shaped cracker from a plastic baggy.

“There you go. Now just sit in there and be good. We’ll get back to you once we’re done robbing the museum.” And with that the zipper closed, there was a beat, and then it opened ever so slightly again. How weirdly considerate for a guy who was supposed to be a villain.

Giovanni and Carcrash left Ben to his post out front as they ventured inside. Totally unaware of the eyes on their backs. Ben didn’t notice an orange light slip past him shortly after the two entered the building. He didn’t notice the yellow dust he breathed in that was left behind. He didn’t notice anything because he passed out on the pavement.


	2. Deal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Due to a mix-up a deal is struck.

Sylvester found humans strangely fascinating. 

Watching them trying to figure out and cope with the contribution of magic in their society was an interesting study in and of itself. Some “Mundies” were clearly jealous of their gifted kin, while some “Inscribed” wished they were never born with their magic. Favoritism for one or the other, while not entirely common, still was somewhat prevalent in between the lines of polite conversation and the corporate business decisions that humans seemed to live by. A civilization where magic, while common, was not evenly distributed among the populous. Jealousy, fear, uncertainty, all of this the result because there was a clear divide between people with magic and people without.

What a wonderful mess. He couldn’t help but watch.

Unlike the other fairy folk of the village, Sylvie sometimes spent days out and about in Sweet Jazz City watching the humans go about their days. He used to sneak to the college almost daily to secretly attend the classes to fulfill that craving for higher education. All it took was one look at a psychology book and he was hooked, regularly venturing out into the human world to learn more.

Not that fairies were  _ stupid _ . Far from it. But their education system was fairly basic, focussing on what the humans called epithets, survival tactics, animal behavior, and other useful skills. His people knew more about magic than humans would probably ever understand. However, while humans were dumb monkeys when it came to the intricate complexity of magic, they were still highly intuitive. With or without powers, humans were creative and almost endlessly curious; searching for deeper meanings and higher understandings of the world, which Sylvie could respect.

Being a fairy, while nice, was hard. It was hard living in a world that was clearly meant for beings bigger than you. It lead to feelings of helplessness, inferiority, and insecurity among the village populous. Sylvie had three goals: 

He wanted to be his village’s first psychologist and help people work through their problems. 

He wanted to teach the village about humans so they had a better understanding and could defend themselves easier.

Then maybe earn some respect along the way of doing the other two. He may be a child prodigy, but the  _ child _ aspect instantly made anyone older than him dismiss his opinions just because of his age.

So when he overheard a conversation about an amulet that could apparently steal a human’s epithet, he simply had to scope it out. Not just for his own curiosity’s sake but to also determine if it was a danger to his kind as well. Humans were already extremely dangerous on their own, they didn’t need the additional threat of being able to  _ steal magic _ . That could potentially kill any fairy it was used on.

If the amulet was real, the mayor had to be alerted and the whole village would have to evacuate due to the risk.

This was Sylvie’s time to shine.

But not long after he arrived did he discover a band of yellow uniformed humans blowing up the entrance to the museum and loudly proclaiming themselves to be robbing the place. Not only that but they captured a fairy, a young girl he recognized seeing around the village. So not only were they there to steal a dangerous weapon, but they were probably planning on testing it on that girl.

He had to stop this.

Quietly, Sylvie followed the pink-haired leader, Giovanni, as he surveyed and ordered his minions around. They didn’t really seem to be all that good at their jobs. In fact, they seemed downright incompetent. Looks could be deceiving, though, so he didn’t let his guard down. He wasn’t going to make his move until he found the right opportunity.

Apparently, these “Banzai Blasters” weren’t the only ones after valuables that night...

“Give up the valuables, lady!” Giovanni proclaimed, striking a pose he probably thought was cool.

“What, like,  _ all _ of them?” The dark-haired woman gestured around her with a scoff, “Do you have enough room on your tricycle to fit them all?”

“SHUT UP!” He stomped his foot, “Just the cool or expensive stuff then! We’re dangerous criminals! With GUNS! Unless you want to face our  _ true power _ I suggest you hand it all over!”

“Oh please, you guys are  _ kittens, _ ” Sylvester swore he saw magic pulse behind the woman’s eyes from where he was hiding on top of a high stack of boxes. Oh, this could get dangerous.

“We’ll show you who the kittens are! BOYS! FIRE!” The minions behind him leveled their guns at the duo and open fired. Sylvie cringed and looked away, not because he was afraid! Not at all! He just didn’t like watching innocent people get hurt.

_ ‘Plink plink plink!’ _

The odd sound drew his attention back to the battle to find a bright orange shield had been summoned to protect the intimidating woman and her companion.

“You will not lay a hand on Lady Mera, fiends!” The large man proclaimed, “My epithet is Barrier! Your attacks are useless!”

“Oh yeah?” Giovanni drew a bat with a knife taped to it. “Wanna bet, big man?”

Mera rolled her eyes, “I’m done with you. Indus?” With a wave of her hand, the orange barrier began to crack and crumble. When the shield shattered the pieces went flying towards the Banzai Blasters. Just before the flying chunks of pain could impact Giovanni however, a noticeable green glow spread from his hip and radiated outward. The young man didn’t seem to notice as he took a defensive position in preparation for the oncoming attack. 

After the devastating attack, all of his minions were down and he was the only one left standing. The green glow faded and Giovanni smirked.

“HAH! That attack was pathetic! Barely felt a thing! Right boys? Boys?” He looked over his shoulder to see his minions all passed out on the floor. “BOYS! No!” He took a moment to mourn the defeat of his “boys” before turning on his heel to glare at Mera and Indus, the former looked extremely surprised.

“You jerks! I’ll avenge my boys if it’s the last thing I do!”

“H-How are you still standing?! How is he still standing?!” Mera’s look of shock turned into one that seemed downright offended.

“I’m just that awesome is why!”

“He must have an epithet,” Indus thought out loud, “He was glowing, Lady Mera.”

“One that could apparently make him immune to our combo attack…” Mera narrowed her eyes at him before a forced smile made its way onto her face. Sylvester could practically see a malicious glint in her eyes as she took a step forward. “Wow! I’m impressed. It’s not every day someone is able to resist our attack like that.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty rad,” Giovanni preened before taking a battle stance, his bat ready to swing, “Now to avenge my Boys-!”

“Oh  _ no, please _ don’t hurt me!” Mera gasped in a way that Sylvie was pretty sure was meant to be sarcastic. This deduction was proven right a second later when Mera started chuckling. “Alright listen. If you want anything valuable, and if you want your “Boys” to make it out of this museum alive, you’re going to help us.”

“Help you?” 

“Yeah, you’re not the only one robbing this museum,” She checked her nails in a bored fashion. “If you help us, we’ll help you. How’s that sound?”

Giovanni’s eyes narrowed. “What  _ kind _ of help?”

“We’ll give you the most valuable items in the collection if you help us find a necklace.”

“Pff, just a necklace? Seriously?”

“Yep! It’s that easy!”

“And what if I say no?”

“Then I’m going to have Indus here throw your Boys off the roof.”

Giovanni scowled and ground his teeth together, clearly hesitating.

“Fine.” Giovanni slowly lowered the bat, but still had a tight grip on it. “Just don’t hurt my minions, okay?”

“Oh don’t worry, they’ll be just fine… Indus. Take those useless mooks to the dinosaur exhibit and make sure they stay there. You, pink kid, you’re with me-” Mera turned back to the boxes, but Giovanni held his hand up to cut her off.

“Hang on, let me go with the walking tank. If my minions wake up without knowing what’s going on, they might try to cause trouble for you. I’ll make sure they stay out of your way.”

Mera raised an eyebrow slightly at that. “Indus is more than enough to handle your dumb minions but fine. Go with him and if any of them wake up just tell them to sit tight. Once that’s done, come back here and help me search these boxes. Got it, baseball boy?”

Giovanni’s scowl became more hostile and he ground out an unhappy, “Fine.”

Sylvester watched as Indus picked up the pile of minions as if they were mere ragdolls, Giovanni trailing behind him with his bat slung over his shoulder.

That glow. That magic. It didn’t feel like it quite matched up with the human. Fairies kind of had a sixth sense for this kind of stuff. Everyone’s magic had a kind of… he didn’t want to say  _ flavor _ but it was more like a signature. The green magic was calm and reminded Sylvie of marshmallows. It didn’t match the faint burning magic he could feel radiating from Giovanni at all. That’s when it hit him. It was the girl. She must have protected him with her powers when she saw the danger coming at him. They thought  _ her _ power was  _ his _ .

Sylvester had to get her out of here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a short chapter here to set elements up for Chapter 3.  
> It's going to be long, but not _super_ long. Can't wait to show you!


	3. Uh oh

“Ugh, who does she think she is bossing ME around?! I’m a Banzai Captain! CAPTAIN!” Giovanni swung his bat at yet another vase, smashing it on the marble floor. Eight.

“Do not fret pink-haired warrior! Being bossed around by Lady Mera isn’t so bad!” Indus lead Giovanni down the hallway toward the dinosaur exhibit, “I get bossed around by her all the time and I usually have a great time!”

“Why do you let her boss you around anyway? She’s, like, a munchkin.” Giovanni picked up his pace so he could walk side by side with the man.

“Despite her small stature, Lady Mera is actually quite strong. She beat me in honorable combat and we formed a contract, just like she did with you. She teaches me her ways while I work as her bodyguard!” Indus puffed his chest out a bit, seemingly pleased with this.

_ “She _ beat  _ you?  _ Huh, maybe there’s more to that weird-eyed-lady after all.” Giovanni swung his bat, smashing a glass display case. Nine.

“I know this may seem rude, but why are you smashing random items?” Indus shifted his grip on the minions to peer at Giovanni who shrugged.

“I’m bored.” He smashed a painting. Ten.

“Oh. Well, I must ask that you please not smash any of the dinosaurs in the dinosaur exhibit. They are majestic creatures and the world’s first warriors. They must be treated with respect!” 

Giovanni rolled his eyes.

“Whatever, let’s just hurry it up! I don’t have all night! I have to be back home by three AM.”

“Oh right, right, sorry.”

Upon arriving at the dinosaur exhibit, Indus dumped the pile of Boys in an alcove before trapping them behind a barrier, much to Giovanni’s visible irritation. He bit his tongue though, knowing that making too much of a fuss may only cause trouble in the long run. He didn’t want his minions to get killed because of his failure in leadership. He failed to assess the situation properly and he was paying the price.

But, hey, at least the only price was only finding a dumb necklace for a creepy lady. It honestly could have been worse.

“Come on guys, wake up.” Giovanni put a hand to the barrier, drumming his fingers impatiently against it. “Come on!”

“They will be unconscious for quite some time. Our combo attack is very powerful, so it is only natural. I am still very impressed with the way you used your epithet to completely resist it! You must be a very powerful warrior indeed.” Indus’ large hand came down on Giovanni’s shoulder in what was probably supposed to be a well-meaning pat but only resulted in the young man flinching and shrugging it off. He was about to make a sarcastic comment back before he realized the flaw in that statement.

“Wait, what? That wasn’t my ep-”

“Hold it right there you criminal scum!” A young boy’s voice came from nowhere, causing the pair to jolt and get into defensive positions.

“Who’s there?! Show yourself!” Giovanni looked around frantically, his bat at the ready.

“The museum is closed! I have to ask you to leave immediately!” Indus flexed his hands slightly before balling them into fists.

“Not without the girl you kidnapped first!” The voice’s source was hard to discern but it almost sounded like it was coming from right above them.

“Girl? Kidnapped? We didn’t kidnap anybody, kid!” Giovanni hesitantly cast a glance upward but the only thing directly above them was the head of the apatosaurus. Could he be…?

“I’m not a kid! I saw you do it right outside this very building, too!” The voice accused, “You’re not going to hurt that girl, and you’re not going to steal the Arsene Amulet either! I’m going to stop you both here and now, and once I take care of you, I’ll be stopping that lady too!” Giovanni hoped the kid kept talking because it was helping him get a slightly better understanding of where he was. From his position, he couldn’t see anyone standing up there, but if the boy knew about the fairy kid in his bag, then...

“I will not allow you to bring harm to Lady Mera, stranger! If you want to get to her, you will have to defeat me in honorable combat!” Indus’ muscles flexed as he looked around the room to try to spot the enemy. Giovanni ignored him and sidled over to the base of the pterodactyl exhibit where a few loose stones were placed on the base with the fake foliage. He quickly swiped a palm-sized stone and hid it behind his back.

“I don’t know what your definition of honorable is considering you’re teamed up with people who’d hurt a little girl! But, whatever, I accept your challenge!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,  _ kid- _ ” Giovanni’s shoulders tensed.

“I’m NOT a-”

“BUT, I’ve got minions to protect and if it means taking care of you, that’s fine by me!” Giovanni tossed the stone up in the air and swung his bat, aiming for the dinosaur head. The rock went flying and nailed its target, causing the head to wobble. Eleven.

“W-WHOA! Hey!”

Indus gasped, “The dinosaur!”

Giovanni smirked. Just as he was gathering steam at his feet to jump onto the fossil, an orange light rose from the head. It glowed brighter and brighter as it ascended causing Giovanni to cover his eyes. Indus just stared directly at it gritting his teeth together out of pure defiance.

“I am not afraid of your light! In the desert, we stare at the sun for **_hours-!_** ”

“ _ Dream Big! _ ”

The light started falling and then, like the birth of a star, it exploded with radiance.

Heavy hooves cracked the marble floor as they impacted the ground and next thing Giovanni knew, he was staring at a minotaur who looked  _ very _ angry.

“What the hell?!”

“Puny thieves may be too much for Dr. Ashling, but they are no match for  _ Dr. Beefton! _ ” The minotaur roared which was soon joined by Giovanni’s own terrified screaming. The bull-shaped freight train charged directly at him, only for his horns to be grabbed by Indus who had jumped in the beast's path at the last possible second. The two were locked in a stalemate of strength, both of them grunting as they struggled to get the upper hand.

Indus shifted his weight and pulled Beefton sharply to the left in an attempt to get the bull on his side. But the beast was able to catch himself and instinctively tried to pull away, which only resulted in Indus being yanked upward and flung into the air. Giovanni didn’t watch him land, but he did hear him crash into bones. Beefton started advancing toward Giovanni with heavy stomps.

“H-Hey can’t we just talk this out? I’m sure we can come to some sort of agreement- AH!” Giovanni was barely able to dodge in time as Dr. Beefton charged, his horn clipping the captain’s shoulder and damaging the pauldron with a deep scratch. Giovanni paled a little bit at the sight, imagining what would have happened had he not been properly armored up.

Quickly getting his head back in the game, Giovanni took advantage of the beast’s back being turned to him and launched a lava grenade in his direction. Twelve. It didn’t do much, but the scalding hot soup did get into Beefton’s eyes, prompting a roar and wild flailing. 

“HAH! How do you like the taste of my epithet, monster?!” Giovanni raised his bat and charged, only to realize at the last possible second that this was a bad idea as a hoof caught him in the stomach and sent him flying across the room.

Before his back hit the wall, he saw a green light spread across his form, dulling the pain in his stomach and reducing the damage from the impact. This seemed to aggravate Beefton further.

“Why are you protecting him?! He’s going to hurt you!”

Giovanni looked down at his hands and watched as the green light retreated back to his bag where he saw the fairy girl’s head poking out. The two made eye contact for a brief moment before the girl lost her nerve and quickly retreated back into the bag.

Huh. Okay, that explained a few things.

Another roar ripped through the room and Giovanni looked up to see Beefton charging right for him. Giovanni screamed and braced for impact, preparing to get crushed between a beef and a hard place. 

With a mighty cry of “Barrier!” a shield was thrown up in the beast’s path. Beefton, not expecting the sudden obstacle, charged right into it getting his horns stuck in the process. 

Indus returned, coated in dust and debris from his crash.

“You have not bested me yet Beef-man! Prepare yourself!” Indus began his own charge, a mighty scream heralding the attack.

In those few moments before impact, Giovanni noticed something. He could see something floating in Dr. Beefton’s chest, right where his heart would be. He squinted; the image became clearer and clearer until he could make out a small humanoid figure with wings.

Oh.

_ OH. _

The kidnapping accusations suddenly made a lot more sense.

Indus made impact and the barrier holding Beefton dispelled, resulting in him sending the minotaur to the floor. The two began exchanging blows and wrestling for control of the situation like two pro-wrestlers. Giovanni probably would have thought it cool if he wasn’t currently the monster’s biggest target.

He carefully scootched away from the wrestling match and hid behind an exhibit, reaching a hand into his bag and carefully scooping up the little ball of warmth.

The girl seemed shaken up but unharmed, her hair messy and clothes rumpled. She looked terrified up at Giovanni and he took a second to steady his rapidly beating heart. He made an attempt at speaking softly, but the sheer amount of noise going on made it hard.

“Hey, do you know him?”

“W-What?”

“That guy. Do you know him?”

She shook her head.

“Really? Because there’s a fairy floating inside him. I think it’s his epithet. Orange wings with swirls? Really fuzzy looking?”

The girl seemed to think about that for a second before a look of realization came to her, “Does he have glasses?”

“I think? I wasn’t able to get a close enough look. He seems to be the source of that Dr. Beefton guy. Do you know him?”

“N-Not personally. I’ve seen him around the village sometimes, and he came to give a lesson to my class once. I don’t remember what his magic is though...”

“Well, whatever it is it allows him to do  _ that _ -” There was a shout and Indus went flying across the room again, “- in a big ugly cow costume. He seems convinced I’m gonna hurt you or something.”

“ _ Are _ you?”

Giovanni blinked. Sure, being a villain meant possibly  _ hurting _ people, but Giovanni did his best to keep things under control. He had hurt people in the past, yes, but the idea of hurting this fairy kid didn’t really feel… Right. It felt dirty. She was so much smaller than he was, and he was pretty sure she couldn’t really defend herself in a proper fight. It was like… Like punching a baby or kicking a puppy. You just don’t  _ do _ that to something so delicate and defenseless. It was downright cowardly and scummy. Sure he was a bad guy but he wasn’t  _ heartless. _

But she didn’t know that. She just saw a big scary guy who hit her with a ball of hot soup and stuffed her in a bag. No explanations. No mention of being sent home. Nothing but a goldfish cracker and being flung around in a bag.

He just got caught up in the moment, he supposed. Giovanni was always an instinctual person. Even though the whole “kidnapping” thing happened, he did have intentions on letting her go once they were done.

_ But she didn’t know that. _

She probably thought she was going to die.

Shit.

“Of course not,” Giovanni scoffed.

The girl’s antennae (he was pretty sure those were antennae) perked up in response and she opened her mouth to comment but the words turned into a nervous squeak when a shadow loomed over Giovanni from behind.

Ooooh, he forgot about  _ that _ .

“So, you thought you could hide from Dr. Beefton?” The minotaur stood on top of the platform, having to kneel to fit underneath the skeleton on display. He reached up and broke a rib off of the dinosaur, brandishing it like a bat of his own.

“Giovanni Potage does not  _ hide! _ It was a strategic retreat!” Giovanni got to his feet, bat in one hand, girl in the other, taking a few steps back to get some distance. He could hear Indus struggling behind him, head stuck in the wall. The sight of the girl in Giovanni’s hand made Beefton glare at the young man with a look that could kill. He advanced, taking one step forward for every three Giovanni took back. Eventually, they both came to a stop, his hoof pawed and scraped against the hard floor, creating a noise similar to nails on a chalkboard.

“Put. Her. Down,  _ human _ .” The last word was spoken with so much venom Giovanni could practically feel the hatred radiating off of the guy. 

“Haha, what just on the floor? That’s a bit dangerous don’t you think-?”

The minotaur let out a growl and advanced closer.

“D-Don’t come any closer!” Giovanni’s grip on his bat tightened, “If you come any closer I’ll be forced to use my special attack!”

“You won’t be stealing anybody’s magic tonight!”

“What are you talking about?! The only thing I wanted to steal tonight were cursed museum stuff or whatever seemed cool!” Giovanni didn’t register the fact that the warmth in the hand holding the girl was suddenly gone.

With a mighty yell, Dr. Beefon lifted up the improvised bone bat, ready to smash Giovanni’s skull in-

He acted more on instinct rather than quick thinking. All Giovanni knew was that he had to make this hit count or he was done for. With a fluent motion a ball of soup formed in the air and he swung at it as if it were a fastball. It was launched right into Beefton’s mouth and splashed all over the little orange light within. 

**_Thirteen._ **

“No! NO!” Beefton dropped the rib and stumbled backward, desperately coughing and grasping at his chest as if he were experiencing heartburn. Giovanni watched as he began to glow and his form shrank and lost shape until the summon poofed with a cloud of smoke. Another fairy - who couldn’t be older than fifteen at _most_ \- fell to the floor, his glasses coming off when he made impact. 

Giovanni slowly lowered his bat, watching the boy on the floor for any more beefy tricks. He was moaning and trying to get onto his hands and knees but seemed to lack the energy to do so. His wings and clothes were soaked with soup and seemed to weigh him down. Giovanni's long stride closed the distance between them and he sat on his haunches to get a better view of the kid. For someone so small, he sure did put up one hell of a fight.

The kid noticed Giovanni looming over him and curled up as if bracing for something. Carefully, Giovanni reached out a hand to pick him up, hesitated, and then used a finger to move the kid’s fallen glasses closer to him. They looked like they were more suited for a  _ toy _ than for an actual living person. This whole thing was surreal.  The boy felt the nudge of the glasses against his arm and uncurled a little bit to look. He quickly sat up, scooped them up, and put them on. Giovanni had the feeling he immediately regretted that considering his face paled and he went back into a defensive position.

“Y-You haven't won yet!” The boy’s voice cracked and he curled his hands into tight fists.

Giovanni gently pinched the kid’s hip between his thumb and forefinger and lifted him up so they were eye level. The delicate wings that were squished against Giovanni’s palm twitched with anticipation.

“Are you done, now?” Giovanni grumbled.

“ _Sleep Du-!_ ” The boy raised his tightly closed fist, orange light gathering in it as if he was getting ready to throw something.

“Wait!”

A flutter of green wings in his face caught Giovanni by surprise, suddenly finding the girl hovering between him and the boy.

“I’m sorry, but you’re making a mistake!”

“A mistake?! He’s a human and he kidnapped you!” The orange boy snapped back.

“Well, yes, but I think he’s a nice human!”

“What?! Me?!  _ Nice?! _ NEVER!” Both fairies stared at Giovanni for a moment before he leaned in and lowered his voice to a whisper, “Don’t tell my minions, okay? They wouldn’t get it.”

“See? I wasn’t in any danger. It’s fine.”

The boy crossed his arms and squirmed in Giovanni’s grip, “That’s debatable. This guy seems like a walking natural disaster-”

“Um, excuse me!” The trio jumped and turned to see Indus had freed himself from the wall. “Where did the cow-man go? And what are those?”

“Uhhhhh,” Giovanni looked between the fairies and then back to Indus before he stood up straight, squaring his shoulders. “I single-handedly defeated him! And these are, uh, epithet summoned creatures that were with him! They’re not mine though. Which means someone else must be hiding in the museum! You better go warn that Mera lady about it! There might be more cow guys! Maybe even a whole  _ army _ of them!”

“ARMY?!” Indus’ eyes looked like they were bulging out of his skull. The huge man seemed to have a mental debate that was over as soon as it began. He pointed a finger at Giovanni. “Watch the intruders!” Then he turned on his heels and ran out the door with the loud proclamation of “I’M COMING LADY MERA!”

Once Indus was gone, the trio let out a sigh. There was a beat of silence before the orange boy started struggling again.

“O-Okay, you’ve had your fun! Now let me go, you big buffoon!”

“Who are you calling a buffoon, kid?”

“I’m not a kid! I’m smarter than you’ll ever be!”

“Who needs to be smart when you have the level of SHEER POWER that I, GIOVANNI POTAGE, possesses?!”

“Oh wow… You guys are really special,” The girl mumbled. “I kind of wish I was special, I'm just me.”

“Hey, just being you makes you special!” Giovanni turned away from glaring at the boy to give her a well-meaning look, “Everybody has something that makes them special. Like that magic you were doing earlier. That was pretty special!”

She only responded with a shy smile. The sweet moment was interrupted by the boy struggling harder in between Giovanni’ fingers.

“Can you PLEASE let me go now?! Your big stupid fingers digging into my sides are uncomfortable!”

“Fine, fine, quit being such a baby.” He adjusted his hand so the kid laid in his palm. He was quick to get to his feet and take to the air… Or he would have had he not been soaked to the bone.

“Ugh, look what you did! I can’t fly if I’m wet…” He curiously sniffed at the red stain on his sleeve. “... Is this…  _ Soup _ ? Did you throw  _ soup _ at me?!” 

“On the bright side, you smell really good now.” The little girl hovered beside him, a small smile on her face.

The boy curiously put a drop of the soup in his mouth, "Well, at least it tastes good."

“Aw thank you, I seasoned it myself-! I- uh- I mean-!”

“You said it was your epithet earlier. Is your epithet Soup?” The girl tilted her head to the side, eyes wide with innocent curiosity. She had no idea that she just nailed Giovanni right in the weak spot.

Giovanni froze and the boy tried and failed to restrain laughter. The Banzai captain glared.

“Don’t forget you’re sitting in my hand.” He ground out between gritted shark-like teeth.

The shut the kid right up and Giovanni mentally slapped himself for the potential overstep. 

“We should leave.” His shoulders were tense as he addressed his fellow fey; whatever sense of minor comfort he had gotten was gone. “That woman, I think the necklace she’s looking for is the Arsene Amulet that’s supposedly in the museum’s collection. If I’m right, then the two of us could be in a lot of trouble- no, the whole village could be in danger!”

“Why? What could a necklace do to you? Let alone a whole village of magical creatures?” Giovanni scoffed.

“The Arsene Amulet has the power to steal a human’s epithet. Which means it’s highly possible it can steal  _ our _ powers too. Unlike humans though, we need our magical core to survive. That amulet being used on us would  _ kill _ us. It’s a death sentence to any magical creature it comes in contact with.”

“Oh.” Giovanni’s confident look fizzled into concern.

“Yeah.  _ Oh. _ ”

The girl tightly balled up her fists and bit her lip, “If she wants it so bad, she’s obviously going to use it! We need to get it away from her!”

“ _ We _ need to go warn the village. We’re not supposed to meddle in human affairs.”

“B-But… I… uh…”

“Why not?! This situation concerns you guys just as much as it does me!” Giovanni snapped.

“It’s the rules. If we went around sticking our noses into human problems, our entire existence would be exposed! Our village might even be attacked! Humans can’t be trusted, end of story.” The boy got to his feet and puffed out his chest, glaring daggers at him in challenge.

“So what you’re just going to leave and run away like cowards?! Are you not going to fight for your home?!”

The boy bit the inside of his cheek clenching his fists as he thought. Green Girl gently grabbed his hand in hers to gain his attention.

“Let’s stay and help. With all of our powers, we should be able to win. Maybe. As long as we’re careful.”

One could practically see the debate going on behind his eyes. Stay and fight? Or run and probably lose their home in fear of something that might not even happen?

“... Fine. We’ll help.”

“Great!” Giovanni’s exclamation startled the two fairies, but he just continued talking. “I’m in need of some new minions since all of my other ones are… Out of commission.”

“We’re not going to be your minions.”

“Too late! You both are now official Banzai Blasters!”

Molly had a feeling things were about to get interesting.


	4. Plan of Action

Giovanni sat cross legged on the floor of the men’s room, his fingers tapping on the floor as he waited next to the row of sinks.

“Are you almost done? I have to get back before they start to suspect something.” He glanced up at the sink next to him. Molly sat on the edge, watching Sylvie stand fully clothed under the steady trickle of water. He looked like a disgruntled cat left out in the rain.

“I wouldn’t _have_ to do this if you didn’t soak me with soup. Do you know how hard it is to get this stuff out of clothes?” The cool water was soothing on the minor burns he obtained from the attack, and the stains on his clothes - while not totally gone - were now harder to see. He’d have to give them a proper wash when he got home. With a sigh he stepped out from under the water. The automatic faucet turned off behind him as he climbed up to sit with Molly. “I’m done.”

“It was self defense. You could have killed me with that weird cow costume.” Giovanni got to his feet and grabbed a paper towel, passing it to Sylvie who scoffed.

“Dr. Beefton isn’t a _costume_. He’s actually a separate entity from me entirely. I just summon him from my dreams to help me fight big dolts like you.” He wrapped the paper towel around himself, doing his best to dry his wings off first.

“Yeah, well this so-called dolt is now your boss, so shut up.”

“If anything we’re the bosses here,” Sylvie muttered under his breath prompting Giovanni to raise an eyebrow.

“What was that?” 

“Nothing.”

“Um,” Molly fidgeted with the cuff of her sleeve, “I think it has to do with the whole… name thing.”

“Molly-!” Sylvie shook his head quickly.

“I-I’m sorry! I thought he had a right to know! I- nevermind!” She pulled her hood up over her head, trying to disappear into the soft fluff to hide her mistake.

“No, wait, name thing? What name thing?” Giovanni looked between the two of them, a look of genuine concern gracing his features. Both fairies were silent. “Guys, come on! What name thing?! If it’s important and we’re going to work together then I probably should know!”

“... We’re fairies.” Sylvie stated it plainly.

“Yeah. I know that!”

“We’re _fey._ ” Molly further clarified but Giovanni didn’t really understand.

“Okay? Good for you? What does that have to do with names?”

Molly and Sylvie shared a look and then gave him a confused look.

“You seriously don’t know? I thought humans at least had folklore on this stuff.”

“Folklore on _what stuff?!_ Come on guys don’t leave me in the dark!”

“Um,” Molly slowly lowered her hood, “You’re not supposed to give fey your name. Or at least, not your full name. They can steal it or do other things to you depending on who it is you gave your name to…”

“Steal my _name?!_ ” Giovanni looked as if the statement was a slap to the face. “You can’t steal the name of the great _Giovanni Potage!_ It’s mine! Give it back!”

“The fact you can even remember your own name right now means we haven’t taken it, stupid.” Sylvie dried his glasses on the paper towel, easing it off of his shoulders and giving his wings an experimental twitch. They felt dry enough so he took to the air in order to be eye level with Giovanni. “Don’t tempt us though. We could do a lot with a human’s name.”

“W-We wouldn’t do that though! It’s mean!” Molly quickly flew up to hover next to Sylvie, “Like, superduper mean! We promise not to give anyone your name! But you should be careful in the future if you meet anyone else. A name is a valuable thing.”

“Speaking of names, you two need some.”

“What?” Both fairies responded at the same time, one curious the other deadpanned.

“You know, minion names! All of my minions have cool nicknames. Except Ben, but he hasn’t earned his yet. Anyway, let me get a good look at you two.” Giovanni leaned in close, prompting both to back up a little bit from having their personal space invaded. 

“Quick, what are your names?”

“U-Uh, Molly?”

“Ew you sound like a sweater and you’re fluffy like one too. What about you cow-boy?”

“My name is Dr. Sylvester Ashling.”

“I highly doubt you’re a real doctor.”

“By human standards, no I’m not certified, but I’m _very_ qualified.”

Giovanni rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath a moment about bears and bulls before snapping his fingers. He pointed at Molly. 

“You. Your minion name is Beartrap. As for you…” He squinted at Sylvie, clearly debating. “Your name will be-”

“I don’t want one of your stupid names.” Sylvester crossed his arms, “We have more important things to worry about! You know, like getting the amulet away from a dangerous woman?”

“Fine, killjoy. Come on.” Giovanni opened the zipper of his bag. When neither fairy moved the Banzai Captain scoffed, “Get in the bag.”

“I am not getting in that thing,” Sylvester eyed it as if its very existence offended him. “We could get crushed in there if you so much as bumped something wrong. We’re fine with just following you.”

“Uh, no way. You two stick out like sore thumbs with your glow. Plus what if that lady decides to stab me or something? You guys wouldn’t be able to jump into action fast enough if you’re all the way across the room. As my minions, you have to protect me, the boss!” He whined, holding the bag open some more.

“You’re not our boss!”

“Yes I am, now get in the bag!”

“Um…” Molly popped up between the two of them, looking uncertain. “So, we need a way to stay close to Giovanni-”

“Boss.”

“- right. We need a way to stay close to Boss while staying hidden and in a position where we’re not in danger and have easy access to flying. We can’t stay in the bag, because it’s too risky and the zipper would be in the way, but we can’t keep constantly flying and hiding behind Boss either because there’s a good chance we might get spotted again.”

“So, then what do you want us to do?” Sylvie raised an eyebrow at her. Molly smiled.

“Don’t worry, I have an idea.”

* * *

Giovanni marched down the hallway, visibly tense. Every ten or so steps he’d fidget with his scarf, pulling it up to be closer to his chin or fixing it so it was slightly tighter but not too tight.

“Are you sure this will work?” He whispered under his breath. He felt one of the two warm spots pressed against his neck move and Molly’s head popped up from the confines of his scarf.

“Absolutely. Just stay calm okay?”

“O-Of course!” He chuckled, “I’m the king of cool! They won’t know what hit them.”

The warmth pressed against the back of his neck shifted and Sylvie hissed, “Great, now hurry up and get this over with so we can all go home.”

“Fine fine, I’m going.”

As he walked down the hallway, Molly took note of all of the smashed exhibits that Giovanni had broken earlier.

“That’s a lot of broken stuff.” She winced at the crunch of broken glass beneath Giovanni’s feet.

Sylvie poked his head out of the scarf next and surveyed the damage. “Wow yeah. Hey! That might be a good thing! Museums always have silent alarms that go off when exhibits are tampered with! The police might already be on their way!”

“They’re not,” Giovanni sighed, “Those two turned off all the alarms linked to exhibits. The only way to turn them back on would be to access the security room, but I think you need a key for that.” He vaguely recalled hearing the jingling of keys coming from Indus earlier.

“If we could turn on that alarm, we could shut down this whole operation,” Sylvie mused, putting a hand to his chin.

“Uh, not before we rescue my other minions first!” Giovanni lowered his voice as they got closer to their destination, “If they’re still trapped behind that wall when the cops get here, they’ll be arrested. I don’t want my boys to get arrested!”

“I think I might be able to help with that situation,” Sylvie sunk back down into the scarf and pressed against the back of Giovani’s neck, “If I could go Dream Big again, I should be able to get around the barrier.”

“I think I have an idea on how we can pull this off,” Molly said with a smile, “Um, if you want to hear it that is…”

“Lay it on me Beartrap! I’m the kind of boss who’s always open to ideas!”

“Okay. So first, Boss needs to…”

* * *

Giovanni opened the door to the storage room with a flourish.

“Oh, it’s you,” Mera looked up from the box she was shifting through, “Indus told me about what happened. There’s another intruder, huh? Some… Doctor Boofbeef or whatever?”

“ _Boofbeef?_ ” Sylvie whispered and Giovanni adjusted his scarf and coughed over the sound.

“Uh, no, that guy was a summon from an epithet. Which I totally took down on my own, it’s no big deal, no need to thank me…” He didn’t see Sylvester roll his eyes but he could practically feel it. “I figured I’d look for the guy, but I haven’t seen anyone else in the museum. It sounded like some kid- ” He heard Sylvie make an offended noise, which was quickly shut down by Molly who slapped a hand over his mouth and shushed him, “- who wants to play hero. But hey, this place has cameras right? Maybe if you guys give me the keys I could go and-”

“No. You’re staying where we can keep an eye on you.” Mera fixed him with narrowed eyes, before sighing, “Great just what we need. A young dumb vigilante who wants to be like a comic book superhero.” Mera pinched the bridge of her nose, leaning against a box as she thought about their next move. “Indus. Go to the security room and check the cameras. See if any of them are picking up on the intruder.”

“But Lady Mera, what if any of those bullmen come and attack you?!” Indus was tense. Giovanni would have thought it sweet that he was so protective of Mera if the two of them weren’t threatening the safety of his Boys.

“Indus. This is a direct order. Go and check the cameras while Pinky and I here-”

“Giovani Potage!”

“- whatever - look for the amulet. If you’re so worried about my safety, you’d go and actively hunt down the intruder instead of waiting for him to come to me. So go.”

“Very well,” Indus straightened like a soldier standing at attention, “I shall go and hunt down this intruder using the many eyes of the museum to my advantage! I shall return!”

Indus ran out of the room and Giovanni felt the two spots of warmth leave his scarf, hoping that Mera didn’t notice the two lights follow after him.

“As for you,” Mera shoved a box out of the way to get to the one behind it, “Grab a crowbar, pick a box, and get looking. The sooner you help me find the amulet, the sooner we’ll let your pals go.”

Giovanni sighed through his nose and grabbed a crowbar that had been left on the floor. Choosing a random box he cracked it open and started sifting through the straw inside.

“So, what’s the big deal about this necklace anyway? You just really like jewelry or are you gonna sell it or…?” Inside the box was a vase. Lame. Next box.

“ _That,_ is on a need to know basis,” Mera glanced up from the old gaudy ring she was inspecting, “And you do not need to know. Get it?”

“Got it.”

“Good.”

They worked in silence for several moments, but Giovanni reached a point where he couldn’t stand it any further and had to break it with a question.

“So, uh, you a supervillain?”

“What?” Mera’s head whipped around to face him so fast he was pretty sure she almost broke her neck.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you talked about by media or on any forums I’ve visited. Plus, you don’t have a costume or anything which would be weird if you _are_ a supervillain. I mean, this whole posing as museum employees ploy is a good trick but there’s no showmanship here-!”

“Okay, I’m going to stop you right there.” She scoffed, “I’m not a _supervillain_ , and I don’t plan on ever being one either.”

Giovanni raised an eyebrow and met her unimpressed look with one of his own. “Really? Then why go through all of this trouble for a dumb piece of jewelry if you’re not even going to use this heist to boost your rep? If you’re not into the villainy scene why don’t you just stay at home and have a normal life?”

“Because I need this necklace to have a normal life-!” She cut herself off, snapping her mouth shut and pressing her lips together into a tight line. Giovanni wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but even he could tell what he said had struck a nerve. Mera ground her teeth together before turning away from Giovanni and cracking open another box.

Silence fell again.

* * *

The man ran fast, but they were able to keep up easily. Molly and Sylvie were streaks of light as they sped to keep up with the human. Left. Right. Right. Left. The halls were a blur as they were led to the door of the security room. The moment Indus unlocked and opened the door, Sylvie made his move and rained sleep dust down on him. Indus hit the floor like a bag of bricks.

“Come on.” Sylvie held Molly’s hand and guided her into the security room. The room was dimly lit by the wall of monitors, all displaying various locations in the museum.

“Is this a scrying spell?” Molly asked, eyeing the screens and the other confusing technology. Some she was sort of familiar with, others looked completely alien to her. How did humans build all of this stuff? Most of it just didn't make any sense. "Hey look! It's Giovanni!" She pointed at one of the screens showing the pink-haired human with Mera _just_ visible in the frame as well.

“They’re camera feeds. Humans use them to keep an eye on things, but they're not magical. We’re not interested in those anyway, we need to use the computer to turn on the silent alarms.” Sylvester approached the keyboard, eyeing the buttons.

“Okay!” Molly pumped her fist before giving him a sheepish look, “Uh, what’s a computer and do you know how it works?”

The older boy chuckled and gestured to the blocky screen behind him displaying a field under a blue sky. “This is a computer. I’ve never used one before, but I’ve watched humans use them. They just move that thing around,” He pointed to the mouse, “And tap keys here.” He put a foot on the keyboard.

“Oh, that doesn’t sound so hard.” Molly shifted the mouse to the left and watched as a white arrow on the screen moved with it.

“Here, let’s try to find whatever it is that turns the alarms on. Move the mouse to the left. No, my left. No-” Sylvie sighed. “How familiar are you with the human alphabet?”

“I’m good at it!”

So Sylvie took control of the mouse while Molly worked the keyboard, which she seemed to enjoy much more. Jumping up and down on the keys Sylvie instructed her while they tried to navigate a confusing series of windows. Try as they might though, Sylvie couldn’t find the security command to reactivate the silent alarms. He muttered a curse in fey under his breath as he began to pace the length of the desk.

“Okay, so we can’t figure out how to turn the alarm back on, but there should be some way to contact the authorities…”

“Maybe we can send a letter! They use mail right?” Molly asked as she tap-danced her name on the keyboard.

“Mail is a largely out of date system due to how long it takes nowadays,” Sylvie adjusted his glasses and made a serious mental note to consider a class about modern human technology at the school, “Most modern-day humans use cell phones… But even if we did call the police using that desk phone right there I don’t think they’d believe us. No, there has to be another way. Maybe if we…”

Sylvester began muttering to himself as he tried to sort out a plan. Molly, on the other hand, had already stopped listening and approached the clunky desk phone, inspecting it as if expecting it to shoot a laser at her or something. Pushing the phone receiver off the base wasn’t hard, but she had no idea how to work the whole thing. If there was one thing Molly was good at though, it was figuring things out. Human machines were all made with functionality in mind, meaning the numbered buttons had to have a specific purpose to the machine’s use and were not just decoration. So Molly did what anyone would do when presented with buttons they didn’t know the function of:

She started pressing all of them.

… _‘click!’_

_“Hello is this the police? Whoa! Why is my voice echoing so loud?”_

_“Molly what are you doing?!”_

_‘CLACK!’_

The intercom echoed through the halls of the museum. Giovanni was frozen in place, sweat already gathering on his brow thinking the whole plan just went belly up. What were those two doing?! What happened to the silent alarm plan?!

“Was that…” Mera said aloud from where she was standing looking bewildered at the empty air in front of her, “Was that a couple of _kids?_ Has Indus been trying and failing to catch a couple of little _brats?_ ”

“Uh, haha, yeah looks that way huh?” Giovanni tried really hard to look casual about it, but he couldn’t help but be a little nervous about the situation. He looked over his shoulder to find Mera urgently digging through boxes now at an accelerated pace.

“This is just what we needed. First you and your marshmallow squad and now there are kids trying to contact the police! Damn it! Where the hell is Indus?! I didn’t tell you to stop looking, by the way, open the next box. If we don’t find this amulet in the next _five minutes_ I’m going to shove you in the smallest box in here and ship you to the next continent WITH A BOMB-!” Her voice cut off, the storm behind her eyes fading as she stared into the box. Mera was still for a moment before frantically beginning to dig through the straw, tossing it everywhere. Giovanni turned when he heard the jingling of metal.

The first thing he noticed was the bright green gem, then his brain registered the golden cat shape around it.

“This is it!” Mera sounded almost at a loss for words as she admired it in the moonlight, “Finally. The Arsene Amulet. After all this time…” She slipped it over her head and let the weight of the amulet settle before turning to Giovanni; there was a strange glow to her eyes. Giovanni took a step back.

“Why don’t you help me see if it works?” Mera smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took me so long! I had to pretty much attempt to rewrite a good chunk of this due to the original being lost to technical difficulties! So the writing in this chapter is kinda clunky. Hope you enjoyed it all the same though!


	5. Chaos in the Museum!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things escalate quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO sorry this took so long. I kept getting stuck and losing general motivation/inspiration. But now I know exactly what I'm doing! I refuse to leave another fic in limbo!
> 
> No proofreading we die like exhausted people at 2 am. (Will definitely go through and try to fix stuff up though)
> 
> Anyways enjoy!

_Ring! Ring!... Ring! Ring! … Ring! Ring-_

_Click!_

“911, what is your emergency?”

“Uh?! Oh! It worked!”

“Hello?”

“Oh, hi sorry. Uh. Yes! The Museum is being robbed!”

“Listen, kid, if you’re trying to prank call-”

“No! No no no, it’s not a prank, I’m sorry! I’m- I’m here with a friend in the Sweet Jazz Museum right now and there’s a lady with scary eyes and a man who can make barriers and they’re trying to steal some kind of necklace with magic powers and-and-... Oh no.”

“Kid? Kid are you there?”

“ _Giovanni! She’s attacking, Giovanni! Gotta get Sylvie-!_ ”

“Don’t hang up-!”

_Click!_

…

The radio on the car’s dashboard crackled to life.

 **_“Code ten on channel one. Attention all units we have a reported robbery at the Sweet Jazz City Museum. Suspects are believed to be Inscribed and dangerous_ ** . **_At least one child endangered on the scene. I repeat attention all units-”_ **

The sound of the police siren wailing disrupted the peace of the dead silent highway, red and blue lit up the surrounding woods as her car pulled out from behind the billboard and tore off into the night. She picked up the receiver.

“This is Unit 14, I’m en route.”

It was supposed to be her night off, but nobody questioned it when they heard her voice over the radio. By now, most of the police force knew that it was a strange day when Percival King _didn’t_ show up to take on some kind of duty. Radio chatter and sirens filled the car and Percy’s grip on the wheel tightened as she mentally prepared herself for the worst.

She had seen some messed up things over her years in service, she just hoped that tonight’s story had a happy ending.

  
  


Giovanni’s arm was twisted behind his back and his face was kissing the gross dirty tiled floor of the storeroom, which was made even more filthy by the remnants of their battle. Broken crystals and glass were all over the place, a shard of it having dug into Giovanni’s leg. The damage wasn’t totally one-sided though. Mera was sporting a black eye and Giovanni is pretty sure he broke one of her fingers when she tried to block an attack. His bat had gone flying off into the pile of boxes and he hadn’t been able to recover it before he got pinned down. He tried his best, but against a trained epithet user, his best just wasn’t enough. He was struggling against Mera, but it felt like his arm was on the verge of shattering with one wrong move.

“Get off!” He tried to shove Mera off from on top of him only for pain to shoot up his arm from his wrist.

“Right after I take your epithet.” Mera’s grip tightened and Giovanni clenched his jaw to keep himself from screaming. A chill ran down his spine as he felt something icy and cold reach inside of him. The mysterious force clawed at something that he had the instinctual feeling shouldn’t be touched, and then it _pulled._ It didn’t hurt, but Giovanni felt like it should have because when it left a part of him felt empty.

“Finally,” Mera’s voice trembled with restrained excitement as she looked down at the remnant of a magical glow on her hands, “After all these years I finally have a way to stop the-”

Giovanni sat up in time to see Mera accidentally conjure a scalding hot ball of soup, which immediately burst in her hands.

“OW _FUCK!_ ” She shook off her hands and frantically blew on them. Giovanni couldn’t keep himself from laughing.

“Fool! Do you think you can tame _my_ epithet?! You are not worthy to wield the wild violent nature of the word-!” Mera kicked Giovanni in the ribs, forcing him back onto the floor. She grabbed him by the front of his shirt; if looks could kill Mera’s glare would have instantly incinerated him.

“Your epithet is **_SOUP?!_ **” 

“Uh, yeah…?” Giovanni wheezed through the pain in his chest.

“That doesn’t make any sense! How could you possibly-?!” She released him and started pacing around the room ranting and raving and trying to make sense of the situation. 

Giovanni tuned her out in favor of trying to assess how much damage had been done. His left wrist felt sprained, his right leg hurt from when she initially knocked him down, and his ribs weren’t doing so hot either. He was debating whether or not this required a trip to the hospital when he noticed the red blinking light of a security camera in the corner of the room. He grinned to himself. 

Maybe he’d have back up soon.

“-and take your garbage epithet back! I don’t even want it!” Mera shoved the amulet against Giovanni’s chest and suddenly he felt whole again. It took a moment for him to register what she said.

“GARBAGE?! I’ll have you know my epithet has a number of uses like-!” He was interrupted as walls of glass rose up around him, boxing him in.

“It’s garbage,” Giovanni could practically hear the frustration under Mera’s tone. “ _Clearly_ I’ve wasted my time. Now, I’m going to go find Indus and when I do he’s going to help me pry the truth out of you.” Mera turned to leave the room but before she did she said, “And while I’m at it, I might as well take care of those kids.”

“No don’t-!” Giovanni slapped a hand over his own mouth.

Mera’s eyes met Giovanni’s, “So they _are_ important.”

The door slammed shut.

Molly flew with wild abandon through the hallways. She was like a green shooting star as she traveled as fast as she could. The museum was a big place, and she was pretty sure she took a few wrong turns that made her route longer than it had to be, but she soon heard the sound of crumbling walls and followed that.

The shimmering orange form of Dr. Beefton was pretty intimidating, but the orange fairy sleeping where the minotaur’s heart would be reminded her that he was a safe summon to be around now.

“Mr. Dr. Beefton, sir!” Molly flew up to his shoulder just as he finished punching down another section of the wall. “I-It’s an emergency!”

Beefton turned his head ever so slightly to meet Molly’s eyes, “What happened, lass?”

“Uh, well, I called the human police! And I think they’re on their way, but Giovanni is being attacked by the Mera lady! H-He was trying to fight her off but she won and-”

“Breathe, lass, breathe.” Beefton took a deep breath of his own and Molly copied, both exhaled at the same time. They repeated this a couple of more times before Beefton spoke. “Stress isn’t healthy for someone so young. Now, the criminal captain is in trouble, aye?”

“Y-Yes… She- uh, Mera found the necklace.”

Beefton’s eyes widened a fraction but it was easy to see he was trying to keep his composure.

“I see. That’s not very good news for us.”

“I-I know, and I know you’re probably going to say we should run, but-but Giovanni and his friends might get _killed_ and I don’t want anybody to die!” Molly clenched her fists. “They might be bad guys but they’re not _evil,_ I don’t think.”

“You have a good heart, lass.” Beefton sighed and nodded. “ _And_ a good point. But first, I better finish my task here. If the police are coming, then that means we don’t have much time left. We need to work fast.”

Molly perked up and nodded, her eyes were lit with cautious confidence.

“I-I’ll go back to the security room to see where Mera is!”

“No, we should stick together. You stay right there and let the Doctor do his work.” Beefton cracked his knuckles and exhaled sharply through his nose.

Molly grabbed the lapels of his doctor’s coat and got ready for whatever came next. The minotaur snarled at the wall like it offended him, pawed at the ground with a hoof, and then charged headfirst into it. The resulting hole wasn’t big enough to fit a person, but he could make out dinosaur bones and moving yellow jumpsuits on the other side.

“You better be awake over there and ready to run because Dr. Beefton has another appointment to catch!”

There was some puzzled muttering on the other side, which was drowned out when Beefton yelled and made his biggest charge yet.

“Indus, what the hell are you doing?!” Mera kicked at her bodyguard’s sleeping form, hurting her foot against his bulk in the process. “ _Ow._ ” Mera summoned a glass spear and shattered it over Indus’ thick head, waking the man up instantly.

“Huh? What?!” He jumped up, shaking a cloud of strange dust off of him in the process. “What time is it?”

“It’s time for you to get your lazy butt off the floor and tell me where those kids went!” Mera snapped while poking her head into the empty security room.

“Children? The only children I saw tonight were the two summons the pink-haired warrior had captured!”

Mera opened her mouth to begin ranting but froze when her brain registered what he had said.

“What do you mean by _two_ summons? You only told me about one.”

“Did he not tell you? After the beef monster vanished two small fairy summons took his place! I assumed he dispatched them.”

“Fairies-?”

The floor began to tremble. There was a scream that was getting progressively closer.

Then the wall right next to Indus decided to explode, knocking both him and Mera prone. A shimmering orange form loomed over them, accompanied by a smaller green light hovering near his shoulder.

“The doctor is _IN!_ ”

“Uh oh.”

Giovanni struggled to get the magic potion to his lips. He hadn’t hurt this bad since he accidentally got that one awful concussion. (Stupid fastball. He could have hit that home run!) He downed the soup and let out a sigh as he felt his minor injuries heal up while the major ones reduced to an ache. It still hurt but it was manageable. Now he just had to figure out how to get out of the glass cage Mera had put him in...

Mera’s back slammed against the wall, the bull’s head pressed hard against her stomach while the horns dug into the wall on either side of her torso. She hadn’t been fast enough to dodge the charge and was paying for it. Pain shot up her spine as Beefton started pressing harder. She had to escape. With the wave of her hand a glass wall rose, the sharp edges rose quickly to meet Dr. Beefton’s throat with the intent to decapitate him.

Green light surrounded the glass, dulling the edges so the wall only roughly bumped him. It was enough to get the minotaur to move but it was hardly a deadly blow. Mera watched the green fairy fly away to hover near the shoulder of Beefton.

 _Fairies_ . She’d read about them in books, but as the years went on, human technology and epithets became more commonplace, fey and many other magical beings had faded from the public eye. Yet here were two of them fighting her. Why-? The glimmer of the amulet around her neck caught her eye. Oh. _Oh._

“So that’s why you’ve come out of hiding, is it?” She held the amulet up, suppressing a cough. “Now that there’s a threat, you surface. Is that it?” She actually had no idea if this thing could even work on beings like them, but if they considered it a threat maybe she could…?

Beefton didn’t respond, he just cracked his knuckles and huffed.

“Please!” Molly called out, “N-Nobody has to fight! Just put the amulet back-!”

“You.” Mera pointed her finger at the green ball of light, “You were with that Soupy Brat. It was _your_ power that protected him.” A dangerous look flashed in her eyes, “I need your epithet.”

“You’ll never touch her!” Beefton roared and charged again, arm raised to make a punch.

“Lady Mera!” Indus, now finally conscious enough to realize his master was being attacked, caught the beast in a grapple.

“Boss!” Spike had tried kicking the door in and hurt her foot. While she proceeded to scream obscenities into the empty hallways, Ben turned the doorknob and pulled it open. Yellow uniforms flooded the room and immediately crowded around the glass cage their leader was being held in.

“Boys! My beautiful boys! You’re alive!” Giovanni pressed his face up against the glass, a huge smile on his face and tears forming in his eye. “How’d you escape?!”

“A huge orange bull-man broke us out!” Car Crash responded before bending down to pick up some abandoned crowbars on the floor, “And that fairy girl you found was with him! They told us to come find you!”

“Yes!” The pink-haired crime boss lept to his feet with glee, only to immediately regret that decision and collapse back onto the floor. He waved off the worried screaming from his minions and sat up. “I dubbed those two temporary minions while we worked to take that crazy lady down but she wound up doing a number on me instead… By the way, where are they?” 

“Uh, I don’t know,” Flamethrower took the crowbar Car Crash was passing to him, “They said something about a necklace and ran off.”

“Oh no, oh no no no! You guys have to get me out of here right now!”

“Already working on it, boss!” Car Crash lined up with Flamethrower and Crusher. Each of them held a crowbar. “On the count of three boys! One, two, three-!”

_‘CRASH!’_

Mera’s glass spear shattered against Beefton’s hide, the shards dug into him and he lost his footing enough for Indus to win the contest of strength and throw the minotaur into the wall. It was two against one, the green girl seemed too scared to fight, or maybe she didn’t hold any offensive magic. Mera made a grab for her, but the fairy was too quick and was able to evade her. As a consequence of this action, Mera had gotten too close to her opponent and wound up getting backhanded across the hall. Before she hit the wall, Indus rushed to catch her, putting up a dome around them just as Beefton made to bring down a flurry of blows.

“Lady Mera, you need to rest. I handled this beast before, I will do it again!” Indus lowered her to the ground. Mera groaned and rubbed her lower back.

“I just need - _shit_ \- I just need that green kid...” She observed the minotaur trying his best to destroy the barrier, noticing something where the beast’s heart would be. Her eyes narrowed, a plan forming in her mind as she eyed the huge heavy statue of one of the great Fleecity ancestors on display behind him. “Or maybe… Indus?”

“Yes, Lady Mera?”

Mera raised her hand, “Cover me.”

The barrier broke and the pieces flew out as if a bomb had just gone off. Beefton was blown back and didn’t have enough time to recover as Indus assaulted him with his own flurry of punches to keep the minotaur off balance and force him to go on the defense. 

Molly latched onto the back of Beefton’s jacket collar and dulled the pain as much as she could so he could keep fighting. She was starting to get tired though. She wasn’t as proficient with her magic as Sylvie was, and the sheer amount of hits Beefton had been tanking was putting a serious strain on her stamina.

Mera saw her chance and skated behind the minotaur. All it took was a brush of her fingertips and cracks formed on the load-bearing leg of the statue.

“Indus!” Mera called and threw three glass shards at the back of Beefton’s neck where she could see the green girl.

Molly looked behind her at the shout and screamed as she dodged the glass shards, letting go of Beefton’s coat in the process. It only took a moment to realize how stupid and selfish that had been though as the glass sunk into Beefton’s neck and shoulders. Without her magic to protect him from the damage, the bull let out a pained sound. His hands moved from their defensive position in front of his face to try to pull out the glass, which provided Indus with an opening and he clocked Beefton right in the jaw. The blow sent the bull reeling backward and into the fragile leg of the statue. The leg broke, leaving the rest of the statue to come falling down on Beefton who vanished in a flash of light.

A long silence fell over the room as everyone waited for the dust and rubble to settle. Molly bit her fist to keep herself from screaming. She felt sick with anxiety and worry over Sylvester, but her path to him was blocked by Mera and Indus who looked ready to pounce should Beefton emerge.

He didn’t.

Mera sighed, straightened herself, and made a dismissive motion at Indus.

“Go cover the front doors. The police will be here any minute.”

“But Lady Mera, what if he-?”

“ _Now_ Indus.”

Indus hesitated, he looked like he wanted to argue but instead only nodded and ran off to cover the entrance.

Sylvester groaned as he emerged from the pile of stone. Everything hurt and he was positive something was broken, but thankfully Beefton took the brunt of the crushing force. He pushed a loose stone out of the way to give himself access to clean open air. Sylvie coughed violently to get the dust out of his lungs. In the middle of his coughing fit, a shadow fell over him. He tried to move away but was slowed down due to his aching body and drowsiness from having just woken up. The hand that squeezed around him only caused the pain he was feeling to increase. Next thing he knew he was looking into dark blue eyes.

“You’re strong,” Mera gave him an appraising look, “For a kid. Good, I need that for when the police arrive.”

“I’m one of the best and-” He coughed, “- and y-you don’t scare me!” Sylvie mustered all his strength to try to look intimidating and not let on that his heart was racing. 

“But this does, doesn’t it?” She held up the Arsene Amulet and Sylvester felt his stomach drop. His face betrayed his rising panic as Mera smirked. “So you know what’s about to happen, then.”

“No!” Sylvie struggled wildly despite his hurting body, “No you don’t get it! You don’t understand what using that on me will do-!” There was a green light. Not Molly’s comforting forest green though. A toxic green energy that reached into him, reached into his very _core_ and grabbed at something that Sylvester knew on a primal level should _never_ be touched. He tried to scream, but his vocal cords could barely manage a strangled noise. He felt as if his heart were being ripped out of his chest. The green turned to orange and the light faded.

Sylvester felt cold.

“There, now was that so bad?” Mera cooed mockingly at him. Sylvie didn’t respond, just fixed her with a spiteful gaze as he struggled to stay conscious. His bright orange glow was absent from his skin and he overall seemed… duller. “Oh, but don’t worry, I’m not above manners. _Thank you_ for your wonderful contribution to making my life better.” Mera opened her hand, expecting the kid to fly away. 

He dropped like a stone.

“Sylvie!” Molly rushed in to catch him, but she wasn’t very strong. She was at least able to cushion his fall so it wasn’t _too_ hard. When they hit the ground Molly grabbed the barely conscious Sylvester by the shoulders and shook. “Sylvie! Sylvie, stay with me! Stay awake!”

“Molly…?” Sylvie’s eyes were dull. It was like the life had been sucked right out of him. Molly felt tears pricking at the edge of her vision.

“Yeah, it’s me. Please stay awake-!”

“Let’s try this…” Mera's voice was above them.

There was a beat and suddenly the whole room erupted into blue fire. Molly looked around frantically, clearly at a loss of what to do. Mera stood above them, the fire was on all sides, Sylvie was slowly dying in her arms. Molly was scared.

It’s funny, Molly thought as Mera’s hand approached, how this whole thing started with her getting stuck in a food box. What was her family going to do without her? Would they even notice her being gone? What about the village? Would it be okay? Well, the girl let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes, she guessed it didn’t matter now. 

It felt like things were going in slow motion as Mera’s hand wrapped around her with the intent to pick her up and rip her away from her friend before ripping away her magic. A least it was quiet and peaceful-

A loud scream cut through the roaring flames and a figure clad in yellow was suddenly behind Mera.

_SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!_

Mera didn’t have any time to react as a baseball bat connected with her skull. Molly was thrown up into the air as the woman was thrown across the room and impacted hard with the wall. Mera took a single deep breath… And then collapsed onto the floor. Molly fell too, unable to catch herself on her wings. She fell into a familiar gloved hand and smiled up at who it belonged to.

“Giovanni!”

“Beartrap! That was amazing!” The Banzai leader grinned down at her. Molly gave him a confused look.

“What did I do?”

“That green bubble! You were doing something, right?”

Molly’s eyes widened, “I-I didn’t even realize I cast a silence spell- SYLVIE!” Giovanni jumped at the girl’s sudden scream. She flew out of his hand and down to Sylvester who looked lifeless on the floor. Giovanni muttered a curse under his breath as he got on his hands and knees next to Syvlester.

“What happened?! Is he…?” He didn’t want to say it out loud, almost as if the mere word would make it a reality. Molly put her ear to Sylvie’s chest. There was a heartbeat. He was just passed out but she wasn’t sure if it was from exhaustion or if it was due to having his magic ripped out. She didn’t know what she was doing...

“The amulet!” She called over her shoulder while she tried to keep track of his vitals as best as an untrained twelve-year-old could, “She took his magic! We need to put it back!”

Giovanni rushed over to Mera, snagged the amulet, and ran back over to press it against the fairy, as he saw earlier. He ignored the call of his Boys from down the hall, his focus was squarely on the amulet as it began to glow bright orange before fading into its original toxic green hue. He pulled the amulet away and they watched Sylvie’s still form for any signs of life.

Sylvie took a deep gulp of air. His glow flickered back into existence and steadily grew stronger as the boy turned onto his side and coughed violently. Molly rubbed circles on his back to help him through the fit.

"It' okay. You're okay." Molly said in a soothing voice. "E-Everything is going to be okay."

"I'm alive?" Sylvie rasped, "How long have I been out?"

"A few minutes, at least. Giovanni saved us." The human in question leaned into Sylvester's line of sight and gave him a cocky grin. Sylvester frowned.

"You mean he was able to find a second brain cell to use in that head of his to do something _good?_ Shocking."

Giovanni wanted to retort but was interrupted by another call from his Boys down the hall.

“WHAT?! Can’t you see I'm about to drag a child for insulting me?!”

“Aw yeah get him, Boss-!” Car Crash slapped a hand over Ben’s mouth.

“That’s great Boss, but _the police are here._ ”

“This is Officer Percival King. We have apprehended one of the suspects and are sweeping the museum-” Percy stopped short when she heard the sound of boots on the tiled floor. She motioned for the officers behind her to get up against the wall as they approached the corner. The closer she got, the clearer the sound of panicked whispers became.

“Freeze! Police!” She jumped around the corner, flanked by the three officers who accompanied her. She had her sword drawn while they drew out their guns and pointed it at the group huddled together around a pile of destroyed history. She narrowed her eyes when she spotted yellow uniforms. “Banzai Blasters. I should have known you would have been behind such a diabolical scheme.”

“Oh shit, it’s the fuzz!” One of the blasters cried, quickly earning himself a hard slap on the back of his head.

“Thanks, Captain Obvious! Hey guys! I just figured out Ben’s name!”

“No shut up that is NOT going to be my Banzai name-!”

Percy loudly cleared her throat and pointed her sword at the group of criminals. “Your crime spree tonight ends here. Release the child and come quietly or we shall engage in battle!”

“Child?” The young man who, judging by his uniform, was undoubtedly the Captain in charge of this group spoke up and looked confused.

“Yes, the one who called us was a little girl who said she was on the premises.” Percy felt a sense of dread stab into her. She prayed the girl was okay. Cases involving child endangerment always had every officer on edge.

“OH, _that_ child! Well, you see. Uh. S-She got away! But that lady on the floor attacked us and her! You should be arresting her more than us!” He pointed an accusatory finger to the woman on the ground.

“How are you guys doing?” Giovanni muttered to the fairies hiding in his scarf, not taking his eyes off the cops who turned their attention to the unconscious Mera on the floor.

“Not _great,”_ Sylvie muttered back, “ _Get us out of here._ ”

“Isn’t there anything soupy you can do?” Molly whispered in his ear.

Giovanni wracked his brain. An idea came to mind, but would that actually work? He looked at the officers, then around at his Boys and the fairies. They were all relying on him. It was time to be a leader.

“We’ll just be on our way now,” Giovanni said, taking a confident step forward.

“Hang on,” Percy raised her sword at him, “You’re not going anywhere. Not only are all of you trespassing but you, sir, are holding stolen property. I suggest you turn yourselves in or we will use force.”

“FOOLS! How can you fight us if you can’t even see us?!”

“But… We _can_ see yo--”

“No, you can’t!” Giovanni dug deep into his power and the next thing he knew the hallway was covered in a thick soupy fog. The other blasters, taking the cue, scattered in all directions like intelligent rats who were just discovered in a kitchen. He bolted past the officers with a happy, “See ya suckers!”

Man, was he great at crime or what?

  
  


“Okay, pull over here,” Molly instructed to Car Crash from her and Sylvie’s spot on the dashboard. Everyone was piled into Car Crash’s truck, with Giovanni riding shotgun as the fairies instructed them on where to drop them off. Sylvester had strongly been opposed to the ride home, but Molly was quick to convince him that it was their best option since there was no way she could carry him all the way back to their village by herself. After a little bit of bickering with the other Blasters (“I’m supposed to be home by eleven-thirty!” “And you’ll get there on time but we have to do this first!”), Giovanni was able to convince them that dropping the fairies off took top priority.

The truck steadily pulled over to the side of the road. The park forest around them was dark and ominous. There were no streetlights to show the way here. Giovanni offered his hands to the fairies, who climbed on.

“Thank you for the ride,” Molly said as Giovanni exited the vehicle.

“No problem Beartrap! If you ever need a ride, just give me a call- Uh… Do you guys even have cell phones?”

“Nope!”

“We’ll figure something out then!” Car Crash gave her a thumbs up which Molly returned. Sylvester rolled his eyes.

 _[“We’re never seeing them again.”]_ He spoke in the fey tongue, immediately drawing Molly’s attention to him.

 _[“Why not? They seem safe. Even after all of this, you can’t still think they’re dangerous.”]_ She crossed her arms and pouted a little bit. Sylvester looked down at his feet.

_[“Too stupid to be dangerous. Firstly, they’re criminals. Second, how long do you think it’ll take them to try taking advantage of us through the pretense of friendship? Humans use the friendship excuse to manipulate each other all of the time.”]_

_[“Are_ _we_ _friends?”]_

Sylvie looked at her with mild shock on his face. Friends? He’d never really had any friends outside of his summons from the Dreamscape. Making friends had never really been a priority. It had always been about studying and getting stronger. The idea of having one friend though didn’t really sound all that bad though...

_[“I don’t know, are we?”]_

_[“I’d like to be, yeah.”]_ Molly gave him a small smile, which Sylvie returned.

“What is that gibberish you guys are saying? It’s annoying!” Giovanni cut in as he struggled to get around a thorn bush that had snagged his cape.

“It’s none of _your_ business,” Sylvie snapped, “Just hurry up and get us to the drop off point. I want to go home…”

“Yeah yeah, shut your trap. We’re almost there!” Giovanni snapped back before muttering some things under his breath.

“Actually you’re going straight to the doctor’s place, Sylvie.” Molly put a hand on his shoulder. “Please?”

“... Fine.”

Giovanni found the tree stump the kids had described earlier and promptly set the fairies down onto it. He looked around for any animals that may want to pounce on the small pair, but he couldn’t spot anything that looked like a threat.

“You two sure you’ll be okay out here?” He asked, “I totally have a shoebox or something I can turn into a bed for you guys back at my place.”

“No thanks, we really need to get back to the village. Sylvie needs a doctor, and I need to get home- Oh no!!!” Molly grabbed at her hair, “I totally forgot! The only reason I went to the museum in the first place was to get food for home!”

“Food?” Giovanni knelt down, “Was that why you were stuck in the vending machine? You were hungry?”

“Not just hungry. _Starving._ ” Molly sighed, “Our village is going through a food shortage and my family’s stores are completely empty. There’s no way we’ll be able to survive the winter like this…”

“It’s okay Molly.” Sylvie slowly sat up and put a hand on her shoulder, “I’ll share my food with you guys. I don’t have much either but I don’t mind.”

“Oh no, Sylvie, I couldn’t ask that of you.”

“Hey,” Both fairies looked up at Giovanni who was giving them a thoughtful look, “Why don’t we cut a deal?”

“What kind of deal?” Sylvie’s hackles raised.

“One that’ll benefit the both of us, trust me. But it’s late so I won’t go over the details now. Let’s meet here tomorrow afternoon and talk about it. Sound good?” Giovanni grinned and Sylvie’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t trust that shark-toothed grin at all. Molly, however, was giving Sylvie a big-eyed hopeful look, even going so far as to stick her lower lip out. Damn it, he was right, friendship _was_ just a tool of manipulation and he was falling for it.

“ _Fine._ But if you try to pull anything I’ll summon a herd of sheep to trample you.”

“Great!” Giovanni slapped his knee as he stood up from his kneeling position, “I’ll see you two tomorrow then! Later Beartrap! Bye Bulldozer!”

“Bye Giovanni! I mean Boss!” Molly waved at him.

“Wait, _Bulldozer?!_ I told you I didn’t want one of your stupid Banzai names!”

“Too late! You got one!” The Banzai Captain ran off back towards the road with a giggle. 

“Let’s just go home...” Sylvie groaned. Molly helped him to his feet and they both took off into the dark night homeward bound.

When they got back, the village was largely silent. Molly felt bad waking the doctor up at such a late hour, but he took one look at Sylvie and immediately ushered the children in. It was clear Sylvester was exhausted, because the moment the doctor gave the okay, the boy was out like a light.

“Do you want to stay here with your friend? We have spare blankets,” He asked Molly who had been quietly sitting on a stool in the corner of the room the entire time. Molly looked out the window at the recycled pocket watch used in the village square. It was eleven o’clock at night. She was supposed to run a shift at the store and-

…

And Sylvie, her friend, needed her.

And she just got done with an exhausting and slightly traumatizing experience...

“I’d like to stay, please.”


End file.
